Dark Heresy game update
Another log entry from our favorite ex-mercenary, Zarkov Barbossa. It was an interesting game, a good "wrap" to the story line. And it was dangerous as all hell, as you'll see.
++Guardsman Zarkov Barbossa++
++Report of Action, Calixis Sector, Scintilla, Hive Sibellus++
++The Glorious Imperium of Man++
Thought of the Day: Carry the Emperor's Will as your torch, and with it destroy the shadows.
++Classified: Magentar++
M41.350.8
Dammit. Just...dammit. By the mighty Throne, thrice damn that metal bitch.
But I get ahead of myself. I should start at the beginning. I mean, on one hand...++sounds of deep breathing++...sonuvabitch.
The Marines launched out to start their mission, and we headed to the Armory on board to gear up. We met a young arbite named Xanthas who was being attached to our team, because of "problems with his last mission." Great. There was enough moisture behind those ears you could start a hydroponics farm.
We armored up, or rather some of the others did. There was some nice black carapace, but I prefer my trusty flak armor...it's seen me through some rough spots, so I'd put my trust in it again.
We got our briefing, including a dataslate with some IR imaging of the target location. It appeared that Inquisitor Jonas had located the Churgeon's bolt-hole, and we were going in to yank her metal ass out of it. Evidently there was some power drainage and sightings and other such clues, but honestly none of that mattered to me. Payback time. That's the goal. Dropping this joygirl for what she did to those poor souls, and to Barrick.
Well, the insertion went well. We headed down to the hab level that had ostensibly been evacuated, and prepared to head in. The Boy and I took point. Uh, I mean Roth Khan...I guess we had two boys on this one. Well, Roth had earned my trust, and the Fung hadn't yet. As we entered and started our clear and sweep, and I guess I should mention that Jonas was tagging along to supervise, we heard some shots back at the entryway, and the doors closed. Great. Just great. The Emperor protects, though, so after Atellus checked to see if we were being tailed, we pressed on.
At the end of the first corridor, we slid a door open to find 5 sets of eyes staring back at us...red eyes. A frag grenade from Atellus later, and we realized it was only large rats. Well, you can't be too careful. In this room, we found a hastily concealed tunnel, which Atellus, being the sneaky one of us, went into to recon. Venus did some psy-work to see if there was anything alive in the next room, where we presumed the tunnel to be leading. Unfortunately, some sort of terrifying voice clawed at the inside of my brain when she did it. I can't even think about the things it said, the promises it made...suffice to say this job is going to end up killing me if that frakkin' stuff keeps up.
Atellus reported, as Venus did, 2 creatures in the room. Atellus identified them as the "bodysnatcher" mutants. We decided to utilize the tunnel with its floor panel as a surprise, and lined up behind Atellus in the narrow, cramped space. I handed Atellus' rifle up to him, and he took careful aim. The report of his rifle echoed loudly, and he cleared the hole...the plan was for us all to clear the hole, but Roth decided to stop and open fire from the hole. So I put my shoulder to his ass and booted him out of the way. He completely frelled our shots, and it was a bit embarrasing for the Fung to be the one to finish it off. Of course, he does have that Hack, and it was impossible for him to miss at that range.
The Inquisitor, despite our clusterfuck at the hole, seemed pleased with our progress thus far. We traced our way back to the hab entrance, having some trouble with the door release into the next section. Upon finally breaching the door, we discovered a servitor plugged directly into the wall, and Ignace queried it in some strange sounds he called "bi-nair-ee". We were able to get enough information out of it to retrieve traffic and energy use patterns in the hab level, and thus identify target chambers as objectives. We cleared every nook and cranny, but as expected the interesting things were found in these "action areas."
Upon reaching the first of the "target rooms", Venus turned to me with a haunted look and reported that there were many, many life forms...and that the thoughts she was hearing were very disturbing: "eat...live...multiply...consume". Not good. She then told us she'd just done something to make us harder to detect to a psyker, which was somewhat relieving.
The Boy opened the door, and there were mutants in there. They were skimming something off the surface of a frothing green pool in the middle of the floor. With a grim look, I said "All of 'em." and we opened fire. Venus turned one into a puppet, and made it attack the others, as the throng got up close and personal. As the distance closed, I drew my Hecutor and sword, and began carving it up. The Emperor's Light surely guided a few of my shots, as mutant heads burst like bloodmelons.
The mutants broke and ran, though, as a huge four armed monstrosity emerged from the pit. I chucked some frags at it, unfortunately killing Venus' douchemuppet. The thing shrugged off the blasts, and charged straight at Roth Khan. The boy somehow dodged out of the way of those massive claws, as Xanthas and I opened up with shotgun blasts from a range of a couple of inches. It wasn't able to shrug that off so good.
We flushed the goop to the incinerator, finding a restraint for the creature in the center of the emptied pool.
The second room appeared to be a kitchen and serving area, and there was nothing much to report here except the mutant with a shotgun hiding in the cupboard. He missed. We didn't. End of story.
The third target room was dark. And also trapped. Things went very ploin-shaped very quickly. 4 grenades dropped from a trap, and only the quick thinking by Venus saved us a world of pain. Unfortunately, the Fung, Xanthas, made a different choice than the rest of us to clear the room through the door, so when part two of the trap popped and 4 of the haemonculus mutant bodysnatching redglowy eyes things popped out of the frakking floor, he was cut off from us. Well, they say pain is a great teacher.
One of the things got up into my face, and just shrugged off the shots that Roth and I poured into it. Xanthas was dealing with three of them in the room, and I began hunting for a way to deal with ours quickly so I could get to him. I ended up tossing my shotgun into its face and running by it, my Hecutor and mono-sword coming quickly to hand. Something happened on my way in, a hivequake or some such, and I ended up sprawled on the floor. As I looked up one of the things had the Fung in its grip, and from there things went pretty quick. Behind me, somebody dropped the mutant, and the team poured in. Venus took control of a mutant by dominating its mind, and the tide quickly turned. Xanthas was pretty beat up, but alive and able to continue. Sila saw to his wounds, as did Venus, and we were ready to move on.
We proceeded downstairs after a brief pause for Ignace to recharge Hot Shot packs, which ended up being a good call. Venus kept control of the douchemuppet, and we sent it ahead of us to soak fire if needed. Jonas stayed uplevel to get some information out, something of import about the beast we'd encountered.
We entered a room with 8 tanks, and odd life forms inside those tanks in some form of stasis. Not wanting to leave danger at our backs, we discussed methods of cleansing these vile things from the Emperor's sight. I finally decided on the lasgun method.
Unfortunately, we were spotted by some little sawed-off mutant runt, and alarms were sounded. Something started slamming into the Southeast bulkhead door, and we quickly scattered for cover. A massive, sewn together abomination came pounding through the door, and we poured on the ammo. It seemed to shrug off everything I hit it with, though Ignace's hot shot got its attention.
I had a grenade go wild, and worried about Xanthas as he was in the blast radius, but his carapace armor saw him through without a scratch. Venus finally got a hold on what passed as the thing's mind, and used it to start smashing tanks...until we heard the noises from down the southwest hall. Ignace set some demo charges, hopefully to stop the oncoming whatever.
Unfortunately, it was three whatevers, and they were fast, like Catachan Marsupials. In reality they were metal spiders, as we had encountered with the bitch Churgeon before. Venus moved the abomination, which we dubbed Nate, forward to soak up damage from the spiders. At the same time, we heard noises in the vents, and from the hallway we had entered from, and even the bark of an approaching bolt pistol, so we knew Jonas was on his way. To say it was tense is a hell of an understatement.
The demo charges went off just as 2 mutants dropped from the vents, which removed them nicely from the equation. The spiders finally succumbed to our hail of bullets and the loving attention of Nate, as Jonas came inot the room backwards, firing out the door. He called for us to make a stand in the middle of the room, but I suggested we head straight for the Churgeon to hopefully find what was controlling the mass of mutants he'd waded through to get to us. He quickly agreed, and said he'd hold of the masses. Well, he had the power armour, so we left him to it. I tossed a grenade to him, and said "have fun with that." And we proceeded down the hall, sending the big abomination ahead of us.
We busted in on the Churgeon, with another massive construct, the little haemounculus, 2 mutants, and some big tank she was trying to push through a warp portal. A frakking warp portal. Well, after a quick pause to let my asshole clench and make the sign of the aquila, it was on. I pulled my lasgun off my back, needing the range, and sent the shot I've owed her at her. I tagged her, and definitely got her attention. She pulled a Plasma Pistol out of her robes and returned fire, and I felt the heat from the mini-sun passing by me as I dove to the side.
The abominations started a boxing match in the middle of the room, as I started closing distance with the Churgeon and firing on her. At some point, I saw the flash of her pistol, felt a pain on my right side, and knew no more. I'm told that Venus and Ignace finished the bitch off. I was rather out of it, though. Sila popped me with a stimm, and I remember trying to grab my lasgun, but my hand wouldn't seem to work. That's when I realized I had no right arm anymore, just a charred lump. I pulled my Hecutor left handed and sent more rounds downrange, but I can't really remember much of that.
Atellus handed me the plasma pistol that had claimed my arm, and that was that. Jonas joined us, and said some things. But really, none of it cut through the haze of pain, shock, and stimm.
Bitch died. But she took a piece of me with her. I'd reach into the warp to strangle that heretic whore by the wretched soul if I could.
That's it for now. And now I'll just turn this off, now that I know the right ritual.
Dammit! Don't have a damn hand any..."+transcript ends+
++transcript resumes++
Well, it's been two days. They've gifted me with a bionic. I've got a very sweet right arm, I can't believe the workmanship. It's strong, and somehow I can control it better than my own arm...it's like the fingers are more agile, or something. Or maybe I'm just drunk. Well, now I have to try not to get any more machine parts in the future...as nifty as this thing is, it still isn't quite "me". But this sure beats being invalided out of service. I'll be able to put the Emperor's Hate into the mutants and heretics, and that's what I signed on for.
And they put a purity seal on my flak armour. I'm honored, and humbled. And frakkin' ready to kick some arse.
++end recording++
++Guardsman Zarkov Barbossa++
++Report of Action, Calixis Sector, Scintilla, Hive Sibellus++
++The Glorious Imperium of Man++
Thought of the Day: Carry the Emperor's Will as your torch, and with it destroy the shadows.
++Classified: Magentar++
M41.350.8
Dammit. Just...dammit. By the mighty Throne, thrice damn that metal bitch.
But I get ahead of myself. I should start at the beginning. I mean, on one hand...++sounds of deep breathing++...sonuvabitch.
The Marines launched out to start their mission, and we headed to the Armory on board to gear up. We met a young arbite named Xanthas who was being attached to our team, because of "problems with his last mission." Great. There was enough moisture behind those ears you could start a hydroponics farm.
We armored up, or rather some of the others did. There was some nice black carapace, but I prefer my trusty flak armor...it's seen me through some rough spots, so I'd put my trust in it again.
We got our briefing, including a dataslate with some IR imaging of the target location. It appeared that Inquisitor Jonas had located the Churgeon's bolt-hole, and we were going in to yank her metal ass out of it. Evidently there was some power drainage and sightings and other such clues, but honestly none of that mattered to me. Payback time. That's the goal. Dropping this joygirl for what she did to those poor souls, and to Barrick.
Well, the insertion went well. We headed down to the hab level that had ostensibly been evacuated, and prepared to head in. The Boy and I took point. Uh, I mean Roth Khan...I guess we had two boys on this one. Well, Roth had earned my trust, and the Fung hadn't yet. As we entered and started our clear and sweep, and I guess I should mention that Jonas was tagging along to supervise, we heard some shots back at the entryway, and the doors closed. Great. Just great. The Emperor protects, though, so after Atellus checked to see if we were being tailed, we pressed on.
At the end of the first corridor, we slid a door open to find 5 sets of eyes staring back at us...red eyes. A frag grenade from Atellus later, and we realized it was only large rats. Well, you can't be too careful. In this room, we found a hastily concealed tunnel, which Atellus, being the sneaky one of us, went into to recon. Venus did some psy-work to see if there was anything alive in the next room, where we presumed the tunnel to be leading. Unfortunately, some sort of terrifying voice clawed at the inside of my brain when she did it. I can't even think about the things it said, the promises it made...suffice to say this job is going to end up killing me if that frakkin' stuff keeps up.
Atellus reported, as Venus did, 2 creatures in the room. Atellus identified them as the "bodysnatcher" mutants. We decided to utilize the tunnel with its floor panel as a surprise, and lined up behind Atellus in the narrow, cramped space. I handed Atellus' rifle up to him, and he took careful aim. The report of his rifle echoed loudly, and he cleared the hole...the plan was for us all to clear the hole, but Roth decided to stop and open fire from the hole. So I put my shoulder to his ass and booted him out of the way. He completely frelled our shots, and it was a bit embarrasing for the Fung to be the one to finish it off. Of course, he does have that Hack, and it was impossible for him to miss at that range.
The Inquisitor, despite our clusterfuck at the hole, seemed pleased with our progress thus far. We traced our way back to the hab entrance, having some trouble with the door release into the next section. Upon finally breaching the door, we discovered a servitor plugged directly into the wall, and Ignace queried it in some strange sounds he called "bi-nair-ee". We were able to get enough information out of it to retrieve traffic and energy use patterns in the hab level, and thus identify target chambers as objectives. We cleared every nook and cranny, but as expected the interesting things were found in these "action areas."
Upon reaching the first of the "target rooms", Venus turned to me with a haunted look and reported that there were many, many life forms...and that the thoughts she was hearing were very disturbing: "eat...live...multiply...consume". Not good. She then told us she'd just done something to make us harder to detect to a psyker, which was somewhat relieving.
The Boy opened the door, and there were mutants in there. They were skimming something off the surface of a frothing green pool in the middle of the floor. With a grim look, I said "All of 'em." and we opened fire. Venus turned one into a puppet, and made it attack the others, as the throng got up close and personal. As the distance closed, I drew my Hecutor and sword, and began carving it up. The Emperor's Light surely guided a few of my shots, as mutant heads burst like bloodmelons.
The mutants broke and ran, though, as a huge four armed monstrosity emerged from the pit. I chucked some frags at it, unfortunately killing Venus' douchemuppet. The thing shrugged off the blasts, and charged straight at Roth Khan. The boy somehow dodged out of the way of those massive claws, as Xanthas and I opened up with shotgun blasts from a range of a couple of inches. It wasn't able to shrug that off so good.
We flushed the goop to the incinerator, finding a restraint for the creature in the center of the emptied pool.
The second room appeared to be a kitchen and serving area, and there was nothing much to report here except the mutant with a shotgun hiding in the cupboard. He missed. We didn't. End of story.
The third target room was dark. And also trapped. Things went very ploin-shaped very quickly. 4 grenades dropped from a trap, and only the quick thinking by Venus saved us a world of pain. Unfortunately, the Fung, Xanthas, made a different choice than the rest of us to clear the room through the door, so when part two of the trap popped and 4 of the haemonculus mutant bodysnatching redglowy eyes things popped out of the frakking floor, he was cut off from us. Well, they say pain is a great teacher.
One of the things got up into my face, and just shrugged off the shots that Roth and I poured into it. Xanthas was dealing with three of them in the room, and I began hunting for a way to deal with ours quickly so I could get to him. I ended up tossing my shotgun into its face and running by it, my Hecutor and mono-sword coming quickly to hand. Something happened on my way in, a hivequake or some such, and I ended up sprawled on the floor. As I looked up one of the things had the Fung in its grip, and from there things went pretty quick. Behind me, somebody dropped the mutant, and the team poured in. Venus took control of a mutant by dominating its mind, and the tide quickly turned. Xanthas was pretty beat up, but alive and able to continue. Sila saw to his wounds, as did Venus, and we were ready to move on.
We proceeded downstairs after a brief pause for Ignace to recharge Hot Shot packs, which ended up being a good call. Venus kept control of the douchemuppet, and we sent it ahead of us to soak fire if needed. Jonas stayed uplevel to get some information out, something of import about the beast we'd encountered.
We entered a room with 8 tanks, and odd life forms inside those tanks in some form of stasis. Not wanting to leave danger at our backs, we discussed methods of cleansing these vile things from the Emperor's sight. I finally decided on the lasgun method.
Unfortunately, we were spotted by some little sawed-off mutant runt, and alarms were sounded. Something started slamming into the Southeast bulkhead door, and we quickly scattered for cover. A massive, sewn together abomination came pounding through the door, and we poured on the ammo. It seemed to shrug off everything I hit it with, though Ignace's hot shot got its attention.
I had a grenade go wild, and worried about Xanthas as he was in the blast radius, but his carapace armor saw him through without a scratch. Venus finally got a hold on what passed as the thing's mind, and used it to start smashing tanks...until we heard the noises from down the southwest hall. Ignace set some demo charges, hopefully to stop the oncoming whatever.
Unfortunately, it was three whatevers, and they were fast, like Catachan Marsupials. In reality they were metal spiders, as we had encountered with the bitch Churgeon before. Venus moved the abomination, which we dubbed Nate, forward to soak up damage from the spiders. At the same time, we heard noises in the vents, and from the hallway we had entered from, and even the bark of an approaching bolt pistol, so we knew Jonas was on his way. To say it was tense is a hell of an understatement.
The demo charges went off just as 2 mutants dropped from the vents, which removed them nicely from the equation. The spiders finally succumbed to our hail of bullets and the loving attention of Nate, as Jonas came inot the room backwards, firing out the door. He called for us to make a stand in the middle of the room, but I suggested we head straight for the Churgeon to hopefully find what was controlling the mass of mutants he'd waded through to get to us. He quickly agreed, and said he'd hold of the masses. Well, he had the power armour, so we left him to it. I tossed a grenade to him, and said "have fun with that." And we proceeded down the hall, sending the big abomination ahead of us.
We busted in on the Churgeon, with another massive construct, the little haemounculus, 2 mutants, and some big tank she was trying to push through a warp portal. A frakking warp portal. Well, after a quick pause to let my asshole clench and make the sign of the aquila, it was on. I pulled my lasgun off my back, needing the range, and sent the shot I've owed her at her. I tagged her, and definitely got her attention. She pulled a Plasma Pistol out of her robes and returned fire, and I felt the heat from the mini-sun passing by me as I dove to the side.
The abominations started a boxing match in the middle of the room, as I started closing distance with the Churgeon and firing on her. At some point, I saw the flash of her pistol, felt a pain on my right side, and knew no more. I'm told that Venus and Ignace finished the bitch off. I was rather out of it, though. Sila popped me with a stimm, and I remember trying to grab my lasgun, but my hand wouldn't seem to work. That's when I realized I had no right arm anymore, just a charred lump. I pulled my Hecutor left handed and sent more rounds downrange, but I can't really remember much of that.
Atellus handed me the plasma pistol that had claimed my arm, and that was that. Jonas joined us, and said some things. But really, none of it cut through the haze of pain, shock, and stimm.
Bitch died. But she took a piece of me with her. I'd reach into the warp to strangle that heretic whore by the wretched soul if I could.
That's it for now. And now I'll just turn this off, now that I know the right ritual.
Dammit! Don't have a damn hand any..."+transcript ends+
++transcript resumes++
Well, it's been two days. They've gifted me with a bionic. I've got a very sweet right arm, I can't believe the workmanship. It's strong, and somehow I can control it better than my own arm...it's like the fingers are more agile, or something. Or maybe I'm just drunk. Well, now I have to try not to get any more machine parts in the future...as nifty as this thing is, it still isn't quite "me". But this sure beats being invalided out of service. I'll be able to put the Emperor's Hate into the mutants and heretics, and that's what I signed on for.
And they put a purity seal on my flak armour. I'm honored, and humbled. And frakkin' ready to kick some arse.
++end recording++